A total of 7,344 new coronavirus infections were registered with the public health institute RIVM by 10am on Thursday, down 1,338 on Wednesday.

Wednesday’s figure was inflated by computer errors earlier in the week. Nevertheless Thursday’s total is lower than the average over the past seven days, which at 7,564 is 8% down on the previous week.

The number of positive tests tend to be higher on Wednesday and Thursday because of the knock-on effect of the weekend.

There was, however, an increase in hospital patients. There are now 2704 people being treated for coronavirus in hospital, the highest figure since January 7. Of them, 813 are being treated in an IC ward.

Vaccinations

The RIVM has also revised down the number of vaccinations which have been given in the Netherlands by 220,000 to 5.1 million. The new total means the healthcare workers, who are vaccinating some 100,000 people a day, have now given 37 doses per 100 adults, and the Netherlands is lagging behind most neighbouring countries.

The total was revised because figures from family doctors and health care institutions were ‘not properly calculated because of a programming fault in the RIVM system’, according to the government’s coronavirus dashboard.

Earlier this week, officials warned that the records of who has been vaccinated and with what vaccine are incomplete.